The average Russian adult drinks 50 bottles of Vodka a Year!

Do you dare imagine how many are consumed by an “above average” Russian adult? Voice of America reports:

New studies find that about a million people in Russia die each year from alcohol and tobacco related illnesses. And in several recent years, more than half of all Russian deaths between the ages of 15 and 54 were caused by alcohol.

In Russia, deaths outnumber births these days.

The World Health Organization says a Russian man can expect to live to just under 60. In the United States, male life expectancy is 75. United Nations figures show Russia’s population is declining by half a percent a year.

A study published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, finds alcohol and tobacco consumption account for Russia’s higher death rate compared to western Europe.

Andrei Demin is from the non-governmental Public Health Association in Moscow. He says, “This is the major factor of demographic crisis in the country, which is threatening the future of the country in fact.” Demin says the average Russian adult drinks 50 bottles of vodka a year. He blames the high consumption rate on easy access to cheap alcohol and tobacco.

At these kiosks in Moscow, cigarettes cost 30 US cents a pack, and beer is less than a dollar – cheaper than water.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has described the health crisis as a national security threat.

But Andrei Demin blames Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for failing to raise taxes on tobacco and alcohol. “When he was president he was the first one to put that so high on the political agenda. In the year 2000 he said that demographic decline is problem number one for this country,” Demin says,”but in fact nothing has changed a lot since that time.”

Russia’s health minister, Tatiana Golikova, says a tax hike on alcohol and tobacco must be implemented gradually. “Increasing taxes for a sensitive product has to take into the account the social consequences, and such an increase must be done by stages. We are going to keep pushing that decision, but it won’t happen momentarily,” she said.

Are you sure? This is over a quart a day! I doubt anyone can drink that much and to still live. Even Russians with all their peculiarities still have the same livers and hearts as anybody else in any other country

Even if they raise the taxes, all that will do is drive the industry underground. Every Russian man knows how to make самогон. Russians are not known for obeying laws anyway. Might as well make a few rubles while your population kills itself.

Sigh. Russians will always cite these statistics as they do not account for ALL the alcohol consumed, just the alcohol that was legally manufactured for sale and for human consumption. These stats never include home brew (самогон or moonshine) and the ethanol produced for hospitals or factories and consumed by humans (aka as “spirits” in Russia). Russian research has indicated that in rural Russia, Russians will consume 4, 5 or 6 times as much moonshine as store bought vodka. Plus, let us not forget the cheap cologne that is the choice of poor alcoholics in Russia and mass produced in Russia.

Now dildohead, stop molesting greek boys long enough to understand that the RUSSIAN government, the PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA and the RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF HEALTH give the figures of 18 litres of PURE ALCHOHOL for every man woman and child in Russia.

Russia has the 3rd highest rate of alcohol consumption in the world (official sales) and is considered to be second when illegal alcohol is taken into account.

“PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Colleagues,

As was agreed a while ago, we are meeting today in expanded format to discuss measures for fighting alcoholism. At the State Council meeting on youth policy we agreed to address this subject separately, in detail, and make the necessary decisions.

You know just how serious a problem alcoholism has become for our country. Frankly speaking, it has taken on the proportions of a national disaster. According to the Healthcare and Social Development Ministry’s statistics, per capita alcohol consumption in Russia – taking the whole population, including babies – now stands at 18 litres of pure alcohol a year. You can calculate for yourselves how many bottles of vodka this means – quite simply alarming. This is more than twice the level that the World Health Organisation defines as dangerous for people’s health and lives. Such a high level is quite simply a real threat to our country’s and people’s normal life.”

Puhhleeze ,
Don’t drag that poor , unfortunate idiot
Gorby into this by crediting him with trying
to curtail moscovites drinking themselves to
death . All that fool managed to do , was to destroy the majority of Crimean vinyards , that
were cultivated for hundreds of years . For
this criminal act , he should be prosecuted
as war a criminal . All they ( moscovites ) know , is how to kill and destroy .

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